So as if my little friend Danny Boy didn't make me happy enough yesterday, today he did even better.
As part of our Fast Track Phonics lessons, we practice writing words that contain our sound of the day. Since we blew through the entire alphabet and the digraphs before Christmas break, we are not onto what I refer to as the "First Grade Sounds" such which include learning about the silent helper e and other sounds like /oo/, /ar/ and /ing/.
Today we did the second day of our lesson on /oo/ as in moon. The kids are doing really well with these more advanced sounds and I am just so proud of how much their skills have improved.
So, back to Danny Boy who wrote his name independently for the first time in class yesterday....
Today, he blew me away.
This is the same kid who always writes tiny little swirl marks on his papers instead of letters.
The child whose work I identify by those swirly marks because he was not able to write his name.
Well, today something clicked because I witnessed greatness.
Not only did he write letters on his page, but he used the little alphabet cards I have on their tables to write the correct letters in the words. I assisted him, but he totally rocked it out.
Same thing with my friend Anna in the morning class. She barely speaks at all and up until recently, she spoke Spanish to me when she would ask to use the bathroom or get water.
Just last week she asked for permission to go to the bathroom in English for the first time all year! When it was her turn to be the Math Master, she asked the math question without any prompting and today, she had the same success that Danny Boy did. As I helped her locate the letters for each sound, I asked her what letter makes to /oo/ sound. She pointed to the o and I asked her how many? She replied, "two."
I am just so happy to see these huge changes taking place. I have kept my expectations high for these kids in hopes that things would start clicking and all of a sudden they have.
As I helped Danny Boy this afternoon, I crouched down next to him and said Danny, you are filling my bucket and a BIG smile spread across his face.
:0)
Success!
Danny Boy wrote his name for the first time today without any help.
I have never seen him even come close before without letters to trace.
Usually he just makes little squiggles instead of letters.
Not today.
Today, he wrote his name.
So proud!
I have never seen him even come close before without letters to trace.
Usually he just makes little squiggles instead of letters.
Not today.
Today, he wrote his name.
So proud!
Where did it go?
The weekend, that is.
But sadly, I know where it went. It speedily went by as I sat doing homework hour after hour.
Fortunately I got to enjoy dinner with friends on Friday night, Legally Blonde the musical yesterday with Jill, and a solid 8 miler this morning with my running group. Other than those few fun interludes, I spent the rest of the weekend reading and trying to get my work done. I am glad I got so much done in my classroom on Friday, yet I still feel like Monday morning is coming way too soon and I didn't get to look over my math plans like I intended to.
There is just not enough time in the day! Is it too early to start counting down the days until Spring break?
I feel like I have a good handle on my workload and I am resigned to the fact that the majority of my weekends are spent doing work, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I can honestly say this term has been the most difficult and stressful of my life and it's only halfway done! Yikes! I think a new day needs to be invented and added to the week between Saturday and Sunday. Anyone with me?
This weekend I had to conduct a 45 minute long interview and then transcribe the entire thing which took hours. HOURS! Then I had to finish the second half of my book on case study research in order to write an annotated bibliography about it. I threw in part I of Catching Fire for my book club and tried to finish the summary of my weekly reading for my Organizational Theory class, but gave up in order to take another look at my grades in order to finalize them before tomorrow. I intended to thoroughly look them over just in case I made any mistakes or had second thoughts on certain grades, but after looking over just a few, I decided that on Friday I put in a lot of work and surely they are good enough to submit. It's after 11 and my bed is calling, so in the grand scheme of life, the choice between needs more time (o), satisfactory progress (v) and consistently displays (+) on the reports is not going to make or break anything for my kiddos (and hopefully not for their parents either!)
Things that sound REALLY good right about now....
1. hugs from hubs
2. shopping
3. putting my feet up and watching movies all day
4. a snow day
5. becoming a bear and hibernating
6. going back in time and starting the weekend fresh in a reality where my homework is already done and I have free time ( I kind of forget the true meaning of free time...)
7. a pedi
8. a tropical vacation to a warm island
9. yoga
10. hugs from hubs (yes, it's on the list twice...he's awesome and really far away)
But sadly, I know where it went. It speedily went by as I sat doing homework hour after hour.
Fortunately I got to enjoy dinner with friends on Friday night, Legally Blonde the musical yesterday with Jill, and a solid 8 miler this morning with my running group. Other than those few fun interludes, I spent the rest of the weekend reading and trying to get my work done. I am glad I got so much done in my classroom on Friday, yet I still feel like Monday morning is coming way too soon and I didn't get to look over my math plans like I intended to.
There is just not enough time in the day! Is it too early to start counting down the days until Spring break?
I feel like I have a good handle on my workload and I am resigned to the fact that the majority of my weekends are spent doing work, but that doesn't take away from the fact that I can honestly say this term has been the most difficult and stressful of my life and it's only halfway done! Yikes! I think a new day needs to be invented and added to the week between Saturday and Sunday. Anyone with me?
This weekend I had to conduct a 45 minute long interview and then transcribe the entire thing which took hours. HOURS! Then I had to finish the second half of my book on case study research in order to write an annotated bibliography about it. I threw in part I of Catching Fire for my book club and tried to finish the summary of my weekly reading for my Organizational Theory class, but gave up in order to take another look at my grades in order to finalize them before tomorrow. I intended to thoroughly look them over just in case I made any mistakes or had second thoughts on certain grades, but after looking over just a few, I decided that on Friday I put in a lot of work and surely they are good enough to submit. It's after 11 and my bed is calling, so in the grand scheme of life, the choice between needs more time (o), satisfactory progress (v) and consistently displays (+) on the reports is not going to make or break anything for my kiddos (and hopefully not for their parents either!)
Things that sound REALLY good right about now....
1. hugs from hubs
2. shopping
3. putting my feet up and watching movies all day
4. a snow day
5. becoming a bear and hibernating
6. going back in time and starting the weekend fresh in a reality where my homework is already done and I have free time ( I kind of forget the true meaning of free time...)
7. a pedi
8. a tropical vacation to a warm island
9. yoga
10. hugs from hubs (yes, it's on the list twice...he's awesome and really far away)
Report Cards
Today we did not have school because it was our grading day. We are allowed to sign out and access our report cards online from home, but I opted to go into school since all of my assessments and materials are there. I got to sleep in a little bit, which was really nice, and I got a lot done while I was at school. Today was one of the rare times that I wished I only had one class instead of two. I love all of my students and I would never be able to choose one class over the other, but 42 report cards is a lot. I particularly have a hard time with the subjective behavior parts because I want to be realistic so parents are well informed about what their children are doing at school, yet I always tend to give kids the benefit of the doubt and I have a hard time deciding whether to be tough on them or go a little bit easy on them...they are only five, yet at the same time, it doesn't benefit me to indicate that their behavior is better than it truly is.
I spent probably about 4 hours doing reports and then I organized and cleaned my classroom. I rearranged table groups and reassigned table spots. I know the kiddos will be excited when they get to school on Monday and see the froggy name tags that mark their new spots. I like to move groups around about every 6-8 weeks and a term quarter seemed like the perfect time. The groups they were in were not that great and I had a few really really chatty groups in each class. I tried to separate kids the best I could so that the talkative kids are spread out, the kids that don't focus are spread out, the kids that distract each other are spread out, the kids who go to ELD are spread out, the kids who don't get along are spread out, and the kids who get along too well are spread out, but that is really tough. We'll see how the new groups work out on Monday. It's funny how sometimes a group will seem okay on paper and then when the kids are actually together it becomes glaringly apparent that they do not mix well.
It felt so good to have an entire day in the classroom without kids just to get organized and get things accomplished. It would be awesome to have a day like that once a month, but that's not likely, so I will just enjoy the fact that I had the opportunity today. I didn't think that I would stay all day, but I ended up doing one thing after another and before I knew it, it was 4:00. I met up with some friends for dinner and then came home to begin my long to do list of homework. I already got a lot of reading done, so I am congratulating myself with a little bit of Catching Fire before I go to bed. Since I am reading it for book club, it's actually officially on the to do list, which means I am being productive by getting it done and I will have one more thing to cross off.
Oh, how I love the feeling of sliding my black Sharpie over something on the list.
Feels.Good.
Tomorrow Jilly and I are going to see Legally Blonde on stage and I am excited! I am trying to do one fun thing each weekend in addition to running and then focusing the rest of my time on getting work done. I need to do an hour long interview this weekend, record it, then transcribe it, which is pretty time consuming according to my classmates who already got it done. I consider myself an overachiever, so it's definitely crazy that people in class are ahead of me on assignments. At least the crisis of thinking I lost my calendars where I mapped out all of my big assignments in order to know what my time lines are is over because I found them and avoided the heart attack that would go along with actually losing said calendars. I have so many things to keep track of that I would have been a very unhappy camper to have to re-create them.
Happy Friday (almost Saturday at this point!)
I spent probably about 4 hours doing reports and then I organized and cleaned my classroom. I rearranged table groups and reassigned table spots. I know the kiddos will be excited when they get to school on Monday and see the froggy name tags that mark their new spots. I like to move groups around about every 6-8 weeks and a term quarter seemed like the perfect time. The groups they were in were not that great and I had a few really really chatty groups in each class. I tried to separate kids the best I could so that the talkative kids are spread out, the kids that don't focus are spread out, the kids that distract each other are spread out, the kids who go to ELD are spread out, the kids who don't get along are spread out, and the kids who get along too well are spread out, but that is really tough. We'll see how the new groups work out on Monday. It's funny how sometimes a group will seem okay on paper and then when the kids are actually together it becomes glaringly apparent that they do not mix well.
It felt so good to have an entire day in the classroom without kids just to get organized and get things accomplished. It would be awesome to have a day like that once a month, but that's not likely, so I will just enjoy the fact that I had the opportunity today. I didn't think that I would stay all day, but I ended up doing one thing after another and before I knew it, it was 4:00. I met up with some friends for dinner and then came home to begin my long to do list of homework. I already got a lot of reading done, so I am congratulating myself with a little bit of Catching Fire before I go to bed. Since I am reading it for book club, it's actually officially on the to do list, which means I am being productive by getting it done and I will have one more thing to cross off.
Oh, how I love the feeling of sliding my black Sharpie over something on the list.
Feels.Good.
Tomorrow Jilly and I are going to see Legally Blonde on stage and I am excited! I am trying to do one fun thing each weekend in addition to running and then focusing the rest of my time on getting work done. I need to do an hour long interview this weekend, record it, then transcribe it, which is pretty time consuming according to my classmates who already got it done. I consider myself an overachiever, so it's definitely crazy that people in class are ahead of me on assignments. At least the crisis of thinking I lost my calendars where I mapped out all of my big assignments in order to know what my time lines are is over because I found them and avoided the heart attack that would go along with actually losing said calendars. I have so many things to keep track of that I would have been a very unhappy camper to have to re-create them.
Happy Friday (almost Saturday at this point!)
Meet the Teacher
Babbling Abby linked up to a Meet The Teacher linky from:
and I wanted to play along!
About Me:
Ta da! I don't post a lot of photos of myself, but here I am...
I grew up in Connecticut, went to Villanova University in PA where I met by bff and my hubs, and I currently live in Oregon. I teach Kindergarten and I am also working on my doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction so I can teach at the college level someday. I taught 1st grade for three years and worked at an international school when my husband and I lived in Germany. He is still there working and I returned to OR for the school year to continue taking classes for my degree. I am working full time right now in addition to taking 14 doctoral credits, so life is pretty busy. Did I mention I am crazy very driven? I don't like being apart from my man, but it definitely makes me realize what an amazing guy I have in my life. He's pretty cute, huh? Thank goodness for Skype!
A: I would love to be a baker!
Q: What are your hobbies?
A: reading, working out (pilates, running, yoga etc.), baking, writing, and being crafty!
Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I remember wanting to be a doctor when I was little and then at one point I wanted to be a chef. I don't remember ever wanting to be a teacher...that desire came about in college after I taught tap and ballet to the most adorable little girlies.
Q: What are your guilty pleasures?
A: Jersey Shore, Diet Coke, frosted animal cookies, and sleeping late
Q: What is your biggest fear?!
A: frogs
Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?
A: I never used to think of myself as a huge traveler, but after living in Germany for a year, I am all about traveling around Europe. I want to go to Italy, Greece, Spain, France...etc. etc. etc. I also want to go to Hawaii, Alaksa, and Canada.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Q: What do you value most in others?
A: Loyalty and honesty. I want to know that you will tell me the truth and stick by me through thick and thin.
Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?
A: Diligence. I am really hard working and I hope my (future) kids are too.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?
A: My mom. She lives in CT and having lunch with her would be a special treat since we don't get to do it too often.
Now tell us one random thing about yourself:
I consider myself to be a smart person, yet I could get lost in a paper bag. I have no sense of direction and as a result have a tough time driving and talking to a passenger at the same time because I get distracted and can't pay attention to where I am going.
Now it’s time for YOU to join the party!!!! Here’s what you need to do: Write a post titled “Meet The Teacher”. Start with a brief “biography” and then copy & paste the Q&A {using your answers, of course!} Copy the web address of your “Meet the Teacher” post and come back here & link up! It would be GREAT if you could visit at least 3 other teachers…get to know a little bit about your fellow bloggers…and leave a comment!!!! Don't forget to grab a button when you link up!!
Random
Today we had a lock in drill at school which required me to explain the concept of a lock in while avoiding the true explanation of why we would actually go into a lock in situation because I didn't want the kids to get scared. I told them that our school is safe, but just in case there was a time when it was no longer safe, we need to kind of play hide and seek and be really quiet. They did a great job sitting quietly for close to five whole minutes (which is a really long time for Kinder kiddos to be totally silent and still). In the past any mention of a "bad man" results in the kids coming up with all kind of crazy scenarios and ideas and I didn't think it was necessary to get their kids' imaginations reeling thinking of bad men coming to get us at school.
My book club met after school today and we are absolutely loving The Hunger Games. We already finished it, so we decided to read the other two books in the series as well. I heart book club, but these days it's mostly because I get to see friends and the snacks rock! I also feel like I need to schedule myself to read at least one book for pleasure because I love to read and I have to much to read for class that if I didn't somehow commit myself to reading for pleasure, I just wouldn't get to it.
I realized recently that I have a total addiction to frosted animal cookies. I have been craving them a LOT lately and I can seriously down a whole bag in just a few days. I finally took a look at the nutrition label and decided that perhaps it's not such a good idea to buy them all the time because they are not exactly all that healthy. I prefer getting them from the store where I can buy them in bulk because I actually buy a smaller quantity when I get them there.
I did a lesson today that used a balance and the kids were so into it. I used my Boardmaker software to print pictures of the items that we would be comparing and also some images to them understand the vocabulary words that were part of the lesson (heavy, heavier, down, light, lighter, up, balance, and predict). They did such a good job predicting and explaining why they thought a certain item would be heavier. Some kids reasoned that two markers would be heavier than one pencil because there were two markers and only one pencil. They also noticed that the markers were bigger (fatter) which was another reason they would be heavier than the pencil. It was really fun seeing how excited they got and reminded me just how important is to make lessons really visual and interactive for the kiddos.
It's February already! I can't believe it, but February is a short month which means before we know it, it will be March and that means spring break!! I miss my hubs and I can't wait to see him over break.
My book club met after school today and we are absolutely loving The Hunger Games. We already finished it, so we decided to read the other two books in the series as well. I heart book club, but these days it's mostly because I get to see friends and the snacks rock! I also feel like I need to schedule myself to read at least one book for pleasure because I love to read and I have to much to read for class that if I didn't somehow commit myself to reading for pleasure, I just wouldn't get to it.
I realized recently that I have a total addiction to frosted animal cookies. I have been craving them a LOT lately and I can seriously down a whole bag in just a few days. I finally took a look at the nutrition label and decided that perhaps it's not such a good idea to buy them all the time because they are not exactly all that healthy. I prefer getting them from the store where I can buy them in bulk because I actually buy a smaller quantity when I get them there.
I did a lesson today that used a balance and the kids were so into it. I used my Boardmaker software to print pictures of the items that we would be comparing and also some images to them understand the vocabulary words that were part of the lesson (heavy, heavier, down, light, lighter, up, balance, and predict). They did such a good job predicting and explaining why they thought a certain item would be heavier. Some kids reasoned that two markers would be heavier than one pencil because there were two markers and only one pencil. They also noticed that the markers were bigger (fatter) which was another reason they would be heavier than the pencil. It was really fun seeing how excited they got and reminded me just how important is to make lessons really visual and interactive for the kiddos.
It's February already! I can't believe it, but February is a short month which means before we know it, it will be March and that means spring break!! I miss my hubs and I can't wait to see him over break.
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